YA Whitewashing redux? (an open letter to Harper Teen)

[alanajoli]

Dear Harper Teen,

Do you remember the controversy that surrounded Justine Larbalestier's Liar? It had a white girl on the cover of a book that was about a mixed-race teen. Bloomsbury withdrew that cover with apologies and changed it to one that more accurately represented the novel's heroine after fans spoke out against the whitewashing of the cover. That was in 2009.


Then in 2010, Bloomsbury did the same thing with Magic Under Glass by Jacelyn Dolamore. Probably because people were still watching Bloomsbury, there was further outcry -- debut novelist Dolamore didn't have the pull of Larbalestier, but there was enough criticism that it got a beautiful new cover featuring a dark skinned girl who looks like she's from the "Far East" (which reflects the character).


I'm asking you to remember this because I'm really afraid of what's going on with Cindy Pon's new novel, and the rerelease of her earlier book, Silver Phoenix. Cindy has released the new cover image on her blog, and while it's pretty, it has a white girl on it. The main character in the book, Ai Ling, is not. I understand that repackaging happens, and while I don't particularly care for the new look of the cover -- it looks the same as a lot of other YA covers right now, so obviously the trend is working even if it's not to my taste -- the look isn't what I'm concerned about. I'm concerned about this trend in YA and YA fantasy to put white girls on the covers of books that are about girls of color.

Bloomsbury, troubled though the path was, eventually made a valorous choice in representing the characters on the jackets. I sincerely hope that Harper Teen will consider that same route. We want more multicultural fantasy to be published. We also want those characters to be represented in the cover art.

Sincerely,
Alana Abbott
author, reader, and buyer of books






--

Edit: dpeterfreund below in the comments notes that she did not assume the new cover model was white, but did assume she was Chinese. I'm glad to hear a dissenting voice to my own take on this scenario -- and I wonder what it says about me, as someone looking at the new image, that I assumed the model was white. Perhaps she's not! I do think, however, that when there is room for that question, the issue is still worth discussing.

Comments

[tltrent.livejournal.com]

I'd seen the second cover, but not the rejacketing of the first. This is very worrying. Very worrying indeed. Thank you for such a smart letter. It's really good to keep this issue front and center.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Tiffany. Even if I'm wrong (see Diana's comment below), I do think it's good for publishers to know that readers are at least *thinking* about these issues.